they are hiring because attrition has already done its job. We are removing 16 airplanes. Staffed at 10 pilots per plane is a loss of 160 pilot position.

The July seniority list had 1609 pilots on it while the new list has only 1476. Thats a difference of 133 pilots. So another month or two of attrition will do the job. (Not to mention comair has the longest initial training in the regional business)

As for the attrition being mostly guys who have been here less than 6 months well sort of but not really. Last month 32 pilots left the company. I have been with the company over a year and of the 32 that left over 20 of them were senior to me. 18 of them being captains with 8 being mid level to senior fo's and the remaining 8 being here less than a year.

So yes we are loosing alot of junior fo's but most of the attrition is from the top 60% of the list.